Resource: https:\/\/earlylearningnation.com\/<\/a><\/p>\n The Montessori method arose across the Atlantic and more than a century ago. How is it rising to the challenges set in motion by the global pandemic and national reckoning over racism? A new generation of Montessori leaders is infusing the approach with a heavier dose of equity.<\/p>\n Since this can be a slippery concept, for our purposes, let\u2019s use this articulation from New America<\/a>: \u201cTo approach education through the lens of equity is to acknowledge the disenfranchisement and discrimination faced by children, families and teachers, and to create schools and systems that eradicate barriers to success, empower children and families, and inspire a more just society.\u201d<\/p>\n Here are some insights I gained from Montessori experts and practitioners I spoke with about equity.<\/p>\n Montessori Originated During a Social Crisis. <\/b>Major disruptions have a way of compelling societies to seek new answers. The cause of educating the masses took on added urgency at the end of the 19th century after Italian anarchists assassinated King Umberto I of Italy, Spanish Prime Minister Antonio C\u00e1novas del Castillo and Empress Elisabeth of Austria\u2014in separate incidents but in rapid succession.<\/p>\n Newspapers demanded, \u201cWhat are we teaching in our schools? Are we educating killers?\u201d Maria Montessori gave a speech to the National Congress of Italian Educators and, as educator Larry Schaefer writes, \u201ctransformed a national disaster into a civic opportunity that inspired the nation.\u201d<\/p>\n Perhaps this history lesson says something about our own time. Trust for Learning\u2019s Ellen Roche points out that the Reggio Emilia Approach<\/a> and the Waldorf Schools<\/a> similarly sprung from social crisis.<\/p>\n Maria Montessori\u2019s Example Continues to Inspire Today\u2019s Leaders. <\/b>Casa dei Bambini, the very first Montessori school, welcomed children living in tenement housing in Rome and embraced a new approach that built upon the work of \u00c9douard S\u00e9guin and others who studied ways of teaching those with intellectual disabilities. According to Ayize Sabater, executive director of AMI\/USA<\/a> and cofounder of the\u00a0Black Montessori Education Fund<\/a> (BMEF), \u201cMontessori used her medical background, particularly observation and experimentation, to design materials and methods that would enable those children to advance in their human development.\u201d<\/p>\n Ayize Sabater<\/p>\n More important than her credentials, however, were her ideals. Sabater cites her advocacy for women\u2019s rights and the rights of the child, especially evident in her fiery 1951 speech before the UNESCO Institute of Education<\/a>:<\/p>\n \u201cRemember that people do not start at the age of 20, at 10 or at 6, but at birth. In your efforts at solving problems, do not forget that children and young people make up a vast population, a population without rights which is being crucified on school benches everywhere, which\u2014for all that we talk about democracy, freedom and human rights\u2014is enslaved by a school order, by intellectual rules which we impose on it.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cShe was shouting from the rooftops!\u201d Sabater says. \u201cShe verbally dragged these people over hot coals for not upholding the rights of the child! For me, applying these ideals today to racial justice seems like a natural extension of that speech.\u201d<\/p>\n Montessori is in the Same Boat as the Rest of the Field. <\/b>As with most other sectors of our economy, early education in the United States has undergone one shock after another in the past three years. Montessori early-learning practitioners face the same challenges that other educators face: insufficient funding, inequitable distribution of assets, families in crisis and an overburdened, underpaid workforce.<\/p>\n Robust public investment can help, says recent Saul Zaentz Fellow<\/a> Charlotte Petty. \u201cMontessori pedagogy in the U.S.,\u201d she elaborates, \u201chas become a mostly privatized experience available to highly resourced families, which is far from its original vision and population.\u201d She cites the work of Yale University\u2019s Mira Debs<\/a>, Montessori for Social Justice<\/a> and City Garden Montessori<\/a> in St. Louis as demonstrations of \u201cthe power and reach that Montessori can have when accessibility and racial justice are woven into the fabric of how the method is carried out.\u201d<\/p>\n Using Montessori to Break the Cycle of Poverty<\/a><\/p>\n Montessori\u2019s Relationship with Black Educators Goes Back Several Decades.<\/b> \u201cIn the Black community,\u201d says Sabater, \u201ceducators had an eye toward Montessori early on,\u201d adding that Mary McLeod Bethune<\/a> admired Montessori and her philosophy. He\u2019s continuing this tradition with BMEF, which aims to get more Black people engaged as Montessori teachers, more Black Montessori schools started and more Black children in Montessori settings, as well as supporting research into the Black Montessori experience.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/span>Discover Black Montessori pioneers Roslyn Williams (1921-97) and Lenore Gertrude Briggs (1928-2015)<\/a><\/p>\n Montessori Thrives in a Range of Settings. <\/b>Montessori education exists in private centers, public and charter schools\u2014even homes. Sabater is a founding group member for Shining Stars Montessori Academy<\/a>, a public charter school in Washington, D.C. and says the public sector is a critical area of focus for Montessori\u2019s growth, particularly if the approach hopes to serve children from all backgrounds.<\/p>\n Roche concurs: \u201cOrganizations like National Center for Montessori in the Public Sector<\/a> and Montessori Public Policy Initiative<\/a> are working to overcome policy barriers and to expand Montessori\u2019s presence in publicly funded programs.\u201d<\/p>\n Marion Geiger, cofounder with S\u00e9verine B. Meunier of Capucine Montessori School<\/a> in Cambridge, Mass., credits the Cambridge Office of Early Childhood<\/a> (formerly Birth to 3rd Grade Partnership) for its flexible funding structure. Her school belongs to the Wildflower network<\/a>, founded in 2014 by Sep Kamvar, a professor at MIT\u2019s Media Lab.<\/p>\n According to Geiger, Montessori teachers start every Wildflower school. \u201cThey\u2019re purposefully small micro-schools,\u201d she explains, \u201cso that we can manage doing the administrative piece as well as serve families and children.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWhat\u2019s really beautiful about it,\u201d she continues, \u201cis that every community is different, and every community\u2019s needs are going to be different.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/span>Kid-Tracking Sensors May Not Be the Wildest Thing About This Montessori Model<\/a> (EdSurge)<\/p>\n Montessori\u2019s Insights Anticipated Contemporary Brain Science.<\/b> Education researchers continue to find parallels to Montessori\u2019s vision in today\u2019s classrooms. According to a recent paper out of Ireland\u2019s Maynooth University<\/a>, for example, \u201cHer work is even more relevant today in the context of adversity and trauma research, and that her methods, principles and approaches may be harnessed and used in ways that promote trauma-informed practice in contemporary education settings.\u201d<\/p>\n Geiger grew up in Brazil, where her mother currently trains Montessori teachers. \u201cI didn\u2019t always think I\u2019d follow in her footsteps,\u201d she reflects, \u201cbut the more I learned, the more I realized it was what I was looking for.\u201d During her Saul Zaentz fellowship at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, she found that while the program was not necessarily promoting the method, the research confirmed its validity. Geiger notes that when Montessori is done right, it encompasses such best practices as responsive relationships, sensory exploration of your environment, scientific observation of the child, mastery-based progression, and developing autonomy and executive function skills. Earlier this year, a synthesis of more than 400 developmental studies<\/a> came to the same conclusion: Montessori is based on key principles of ideal early learning environments for young children.\u201d<\/p>\n Geiger says her perspective on adapting Montessori for the present moment is:<\/p>\n
\n\u201cIf you are going to make a change, be thoughtful about it. Everything Maria Montessori created was in response to observations. And so I don\u2019t think, if she were here today, she would say, \u2018Don\u2019t change anything.\u2019 She\u2019d say, \u2018The world has changed, and we need to be responsive to the community that we\u2019re serving\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n